So here's my situation. I'm a solo developer and I started building a SaaS platform about four months ago that is about 70% done.
I also consult for a mid-sized company in the same industry, and they've gotten really interested in the platform. In two past meetings, leadership asked me what I want to do with it and how much I'd sell it for. Both times I said I hadn't thought about it, which was true then. Now the owner wants a meeting next week to talk about "next steps" and I'm pretty sure he's going to want a real number this time.
Also, my contact inside the company has been telling me for weeks they want to hire me full-time at a senior level role and I really want/need this job. I'm tired of freelancing and this feels like a great opportunity. But I'm also a little skeptical, like what if the job talk is partly there to soften me up on the platform price.
So I have two things on the table and I don't know how to negotiate either without messing up the other. I’m worried that if I push too hard on the price of the platform, the job offer might cool off. If I lowball the platform to protect the job, I'm giving away four months of work. I can't really ask my contact for help either, because he works there.
And how do I push for a fair price without making them reconsider the job offer? This is the thing I'm losing sleep over. If I come in too high they might think I'm being unreasonable and it sours everything including the employment piece. But if I lowball it just to play nice.
When I demoed the platform, leadership pushed back hard on production readiness, even though I'd never claimed it was ready. The subtext was that I don't understand what it takes to deploy something like this at scale, and that I'd need serious money and support to make it viable. In hindsight that felt like pre-negotiating, and I think the "you don't know what it takes" framing is going to be their lever to push the price down.
So I guess my questions are:
What's a half-finished vertical SaaS platform actually worth to a company that wants to buy it and use it internally? If they tried to build it themselves I think it'd cost them mid six figures, but I genuinely don't know what an actual buyer pays versus what it'd cost to rebuild. There's no revenue because nobody's actively using it yet, so I can't point to ARR or anything like that.
How much should the unfinished part actually knock the price down? The 30% that's left is real work, compliance certification alone is a six month, $20,000+ project. But the working core is what they want to use, and I'd be the one finishing the rest if I take the job.
How do I push for a fair price without making them reconsider the job offer? Because the job is honestly the thing I care about most, but I also don’t want to make a dumb decision.
And do I name a number or make them go first?